So now we lose Fess Parker.  I am not quite old enough for the first Davy Crockett mania or the whole coonskin cap business.  Not quite, but I was around for his second dance with the coonskin, Daniel Boone.  

Parker had the misfortune of being in that same Hollywood class as men like Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, and to a certain degree Marlon Brando.  That was a pretty tough bunch to break out in front of by anyones standards.  He made a few films but never hit that sweet spot that would put him in front of the pack.  One of his earliest roles was that of the pilot in the "B" movie, sci-fi classic "Them".

It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened for him in the long run since Disney Studios saw him and approached him to be Davy Crockett for a few episodes of their series, "Disneyland".   A lot of people credit the Davey Crockett shows as the first mini-series, even though it would be twenty plus years before that term was coined.  He beat out a lot of actors for the role too, Buddy Ebsen (who would play George Russel), and the man who beat him for a leading role in  "Them" James Arness.

The episodes captured the imaginations of millions of the first T.V. generation.  So much so that despite the fact that Disney killed him off at the Alamo, they cut the first three episodes into a theatrical release and it was one of the biggest movies for kids anyway, of  1955.  It also got Parker a contract with Disney Studios.  He appeared in several other Disney films.  

All of that was fading as 1964 rolled around and Parker donned the coonskin cap to portray none other than Daniel Boone.   This is where I come in to the picture here.  My pop was a man who liked to hunt.  Rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, and quail.  Not just for sport but for food.  A lot of things happened in '64 but, it was also the year I was given my first shotgun.   

The Daniel Boone show was one of the first that I can remember as being a favorite of his.  I know it was fictionalized and had little to do with reality, still it showed a time that he found to represent an era when a simple man was the most righteous.  A time when honor and honesty still mattered.  Long before the cynicism of the sixties crushed his dreams.

We watched that show together.  Almost every week.  He took me to the woods and taught me to hunt.  He often used the lessons that he saw in Daniel Boone to exemplify what he wanted me to learn about not just hunting, but the world in general.   

By the time that series ended it's run in 1970 we all lived in a different world.  Riots, protests, war ravaged the relationships of a lot of young men and their fathers.  I looked at shows like Daniel Boone as lies that hid the responsibility and the truth of the way that we made the country.  I couldn't watch it anymore.  I took a different path and lost a lot of years that I'd really like to have back now.  

So another image, and icon of my childhood passes from the scene.  I recently found reruns of the show on RTV.  I stop there sometimes and watch and think of those days when I could look up to a hero without seeing the warts of reality and think of an ideal that was not self centered but of the whole community.  Sometimes they bring a tear to my eyes when a scene strikes a resonant chord in my mind and I return to those days when I was just this man's son and not who I became later. 

So long Dan'l.